The Assizes
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834100500302 |
| Published date | 01 July 1941 |
| Date | 01 July 1941 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Assizes
PERJURY
IN
AFFIDAVIT FOR
HABEAS
CORPUS
R.
v. Harry Sahini
AT a recent session of the Central Criminal Court, Harry
Sabini, who in June, 1940, was made the subject of a
detention order by the Home Secretary
under
Regulation 18B
of the Defence (General) Regulations, and whose applications
for release were reported at pages 40 to 45 of the current volume
of this Journal, was indicted for perjury at the instance of
the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The
indictment alleged
that the accused on the
zoth
day of December, 1940, being
lawfully sworn as a witness in a judicial proceeding, namely
the hearing by the Divisional Court of the King's Bench
Division of the
High
Court of Justice of an application by
him the said Harry Sabini for a writ of habeas corpus, wilfully
made statements, material in
that
proceeding, which he knew
to be false, to wit
that
he had no knowledge whatsoever of the
name of
Harry
Handley,
that
he had never been known by
that name, that he had been confused with another person
of the name of Sabini,
and
that, apart from a single summary
conviction for drunkenness many years ago, he
had
never
been convicted of any criminal offence.
The
perjury was actually committed in an affidavit
sworn before acommissioner for oaths at the Winter Quarters
Camp, Ascot, where Sabini was
detained;
but, for
the
purposes
of'
the indictment, it was treated as having been
made in the judicial proceeding in
the
High Court for which
it was intended, in accordance with the provision made by
section I, ss. 3 of
the
Perjury Act, 1911.
At the opening of the trial counsel for the defence sub-
mitted
that
the statements alleged in
the
indictment were
not
material in the judicial proceeding, because at
that
time
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